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The free software fragmatism is like evolution; no matter how powerful the T-rex was, lesser species survived the catastrophy to become the dominant species.

Microsoft and Apple are strongholds that will rise and crumble because they are strongholds, and Android, which builds on the "OMG Linux will never be user friendly because of x, y, z!"-'technologies', somehow became domminant because of what exactly? -> fragmentation, leading to innovation. No matter how crappy, if Motorola and Sony suck, Samsung will make up for it (and vice-versa).

Thats when you hate the idea developing free software without a catch. Instead of fair play and equal rights for everyone you demand the copyright(CA) or a broad license(CLA) for any contributions. This effectively secures a back orifice to close up code and screw over free software communities. Or for the lulz: Use the copyright to sue GPL-users.

CLA can be good too. Example, something licensed under the GPL could be relicensed under the LGPL, or something licensed under the GPLv2 could be relicensed under the GPLv3, or something licensed under the 4-clause BSD license could be relicensed under the 3-clause BSD license then the 2-clause BSD license.

Sure they can stop developing the software as open source and start developing it proprietary, but then the community may still fork it and continue the open source development.

Sure they can stop developing the software as open source and start developing it proprietary, but then the community may still fork it and continue the open source development.

In this particular case, there are safeguards against closing of Qt. If Trolltech (or anyone else) stops releasing Qt as both GPL 3 and LGPL 2.1, the latest Qt version would become BSD-licensed, which would seriously threaten any competing proprietary version. It would be hard for anybody to justify buying a proprietary Qt license if they can have the BSD code and modify or close it themselves.